Ubuntu – How to use Mutter with GNOME Shell

gnomemutter

I'm new to the whole GNOME Shell. I recently installed it, and I read somewhere a while ago that Compiz is completely broken with GNOME Shell so I have to use Mutter instead. I have no idea where to start though; I sifted through Google and couldn't find any tutorials on it. So far, I have brought up a terminal and did sudo mutter --replace; this works okay, but I don't know how to replace it permanently so I always have Mutter enabled. Secondly it seems to kill the whole shell: I can't move my cursor to the top left and access my applications like I could before.

Is there an easier way? Also, how do I access the effects like in Compiz?

I'm sorry, I'm pretty new.

Best Answer

Mutter is the default window manager in gnome-shell. You don't have to start it manually, let alone with super user privileges. All you have to do is install gnome-shell and use it as session instead of Unity.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to get Compiz, Emerald, and GNOME to work

To use emerald on 11.04:

Remove Emerald:

$ sudo apt-get purge emerald

Deps:

$ sudo apt-get install libwnck-dev libwnck1.0-cil-dev git automake libtool intltool libdecoration0 libdecoration0-dev

Compile:

git clone git://anongit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald
cd emerald
git checkout -b compiz++ origin/compiz++
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make && sudo make install

Now, open CompizConfig and enable "Window Decoration", "Resize Window" and "Move Window". Make sure "Window Decoration"'s command is emerald --replace .

Press alt+f2 to run this command:

emerald --replace

You should now have your emerald theme activated and have the ability to move the windows around. :D

11.10 Edits

You may have to modify the directions above slightly:

Compile:

git clone git://anongit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald
cd emerald
git checkout -b compiz++ origin/compiz++
git reset --hard 0936b42efbc4247d1af16d5043f9a7a36ed8063a
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make && sudo make install

Note: The git reset command goes to a specific release of their code. It seems the latest version is broken, but this is subject to change. You may want to attempt the original instructions, and revert back to commit 0936b42efbc4247d1af16d5043f9a7a36ed8063a only if you are unable to compile Emerald.

Ubuntu – Can a Gnome2 like interface be built upon the new Gnome3 code

Absolutely! Check out gnome-session-fallback in the Software Centre, which gives you a Gnome Classic login session with Gnome Panel 3 and Metacity. (As before, you can swap Metacity for Compiz if you are so inclined). (see here: How to revert to GNOME Classic Desktop? )

As well as using the new Gnome libraries, Gnome Panel 3 is changed from the last version of Gnome Panel 2:

There is a new panel applet library that panel applets must use. (I think it was introduced in the last version of Gnome 2).
Applets are positioned relative to each other instead of in absolute screen coordinates. This fixes a long-standing bug where applets would be jumbled after changing screen resolution.
To edit a panel, you must hold Alt and right click. This makes it a little harder for people to accidentally break the panel. (And, of course, harder to edit the panel if you don't know the trick).
The Main Menu applet has the Applications and System sections combined, to be a little more consistent with Gnome Shell.

Other than that, it really is the same panel as before, with a lot of the same applets as before. The ones that aren't there just need to be updated.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to get Compiz, Emerald, and GNOME to work

Ubuntu – Can a Gnome2 like interface be built upon the new Gnome3 code

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